If first-year TCU coach Trent Johnson and his staff wanted to make a statement to their new conference, and the rest of the nation for that matter, before their players even stepped foot onto a Big 12-stamped court, he accomplished that and then some on Monday.

The Horned Frogs staff secured a commitment from one of the top-rated players in the country with a pledge from four-star Dallas Prime Prep Academy center Karviar Shepherd. In doing so, the TCU staff stayed true to its promise of supplanting themselves firmly into the Metroplex's hotbed recruiting grounds and denied conference foes and traditional recruiting powerhouses Texas, Kansas and Baylor the chance at landing the No. 43 player in the country.